Waiting Child

The process to adopt a Waiting Child through Great Wall China Adoption starts here! Great Wall China Adoption’s Waiting Child Program offers families the opportunity to adopt a child with special needs. Often, these children are the most vulnerable and need your love, support, and healing. The CCCWA has recognized Great Wall China Adoption with the #1 rating among agencies in the US for placing Special Focus children in the Waiting Child program.

We are so excited for you to begin your adoption journey with Great Wall. There are over 2,000 children currently available for adoption through the Waiting Child Program from China. It is our goal to advocate for these children and find homes for as many of them as possible.

Great Wall China Adoption has access to at least 10 different lists in order to help match you with your waiting angel. For more information about these lists and how your family can be matched quickly with Great Wall, be sure to review our free China Information Guide!

GWCA Orphanage Partnerships

Great Wall has been honored to participate in several special projects upon the invitation of the CCCWA. Through our Orphanage Partnerships, Great Wall provides support and assistance to an orphanage in China. Great Wall is privileged to help orphanages become more involved in international adoption by assisting them with the necessary resources to refer their children to the CCCWA.

Great Wall is currently working exclusively with eightorphanages to help find forever families for their Waiting Children. Staff from Great Wall has been able to visit these orphanages and meet the caregivers, foster parents, and directors personally. We have also been able to meet and personally interview over 300 children from these orphanages. This information has been invaluable for our families and has helped in preparing to bring their children home.

**When learning more about Waiting Child and finding your forever child, ask about the LID track and the Special Focus track!

Available Waiting Children

Boys and girls between 6 months – 13 years old

May have any level of diagnosed physical, medical, or developmental conditions

May be between 8 – 13 years old with no diagnosed special need

Eligibility

If you have any questions regarding eligibility, we would be happy to help you complete a free eligibility check prior to formally applying with GWCA. Please contact us at 512-323-9595 or contact us here to discuss eligibility in more detail.

Citizenship Requirements

One adoptive parent must be a US citizen.

Age Requirements for Parents

Married couples/singles must be at least 30 years old to be eligible to adopt a Waiting Child from China. There must be no more than a 45 year age difference between the youngest parent and the child.

Education Requirements

Each potential adoptive parent must have at least a high school diploma or the equivalent.

Financial Requirements

Couples must show a positive net worth (assets vs. liabilities) of at least $80,000; Singles should have a net worth of $100,000.

Must have an annual income of at least $10,000/person in the household, including the adopted child. For example, a married couple with two children living in the home must earn at least $50,000.

Health History

Families are not eligible to adopt if any of the following apply:

Current diagnosis of depression/anxiety; currently on medication for depression/anxiety; if previously diagnosed with depression/anxiety, you must be off medication for at least 2 years.

Diagnosed with alcoholism within the last 10 years or any history of illegal drug/narcotic use or abuse.

Major organ transplant/surgery within 10 years

Any previous history/diagnosis of cancer

BMI greater than 40

If one spouse is completely healthy and the other’s medical condition does not inhibit their ability to parent a family may be eligible to adopt a waiting child.

Sarah, you are correct! The age difference between the youngest parent within a married couple has to be within 50 years. If you want to know more about Noah, you can go ahead and click the “Want More Information” button on his profile and someone from the hosting team will be in contact with you shortly. Thanks and have a great day!

Dear Kim, Unfortunately no U.S. adoption agency can assist anyone who is not a U.S. Citizen with the adoption process. The reason for this is because you are dealing with the immigration process of one person from one country to another, and so the agency you work with has to be in your country of origin to facilitate the adoption for immigration purposes. There are specific laws in each country that dictate who can help facilitate adoptions, and the U.S. and other countries, probably Ireland as well, have specific rules on who can do adoptions within that country. I’m sorry we can’t help you in your adoption journey. I hope you are able to find an adoption agency within Ireland that can assist you with an adoption from China.

Why do you discriminate against parents with depression? Having already raised one child with cerebral palsy, I know that special needs children are far more likely than the general population to suffer from depression. It seems to me that a parent who is prepared to cope with that would be the emotional aspects of disability would be highly desirable.

Thank you for inquiring about our China Adoption program! You asked an excellent question. The eligibility requirements to adopt from China are not our agencies, they’re actually China’s requirements that they’ve put forth for families who want to adopt from their country. We just have to follow the requirements that China has put forth for any U.S. Adoption Agency that is working to help families adopt from their country. Our agency does not discriminate against anyone with depression. In fact, our agency works hard to help families who do have eligibility issues to find ways of still allowing them to adopt. We can sometimes ask China if they’ll make an exception on certain eligibility requirements for certain families, depending on what the eligibility issue is and other factors. We have had many families where one parent is taking medication for anxiety or depression, and the other parent is not, go on to adopt a child from China.

If you are still interested in adopting a child from China, we would be more than happy to work with your family and see if an exception can be made for that eligibility concern. It sounds like you might be a great candidate for adoption since you already have experience with raising a child with a special need. If you’d like more information on how to adopt from China, please feel free to call our China Matching Team at #512.323.9595 ext. 3033. Thank you and have a great day!

Dear Jane, Unfortunately no U.S. adoption agency can assist anyone who is not a U.S. Citizen with the adoption process. The reason for this is because you are dealing with the immigration process of one person from one country to another, and so the agency you work with has to be in your country of origin to facilitate the adoption for immigration purposes. There are specific laws in each country that dictate who can help facilitate adoptions, and the U.S. and other countries, probably the UK as well, have specific rules on who can do adoptions within that country. I’m sorry we can’t help you in your adoption journey. I hope you are able to find an adoption agency within the UK that can assist you with an adoption from China.